on my recent art inactivity March 28, 2011
Posted by dilutedwater in coursework.add a comment
I am taking the GCE A Level Art paper, which is basically coursework. As such, I am not allowed to publish any content whatsoever. So for those of you who have been thinking that I have abandoned art-making, rest assured I haven’t. Also, please wait patiently till I have clearance to publish my work (i.e. after grading). Patience is a virtue and hopefully, yours will be rewarded.
ILP 2010 – clocks November 29, 2010
Posted by dilutedwater in artworks-3D, coursework.Tags: clock, glass, ring, sand, wood
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clock #1 – landslide
first i glued the balsa cubes together. each one is painstakingly hand-textured. and there are over a hundred of them go figure. plus the balsa powder thing was flying everywhere threatening to give me asthma. or sinus. or some permanent respiratory problem.
and then i used liquid shoe wax to stain it darker. emphasises the crevices. here it is half stained. it’s a nifty tricked i picked up last year when doing the stupid parquet flooring. i was very, very, very happy with the results of my fake parquet flooring that i kept only that and threw away the rest of my set just this week when cleaning my room.
and then i covered it with sand mixed with decoupage applied with a brush. hanqing gave me whatever was left from her coursework. you can also see the tiny hands there. with cork sheet cut out and pasted over.
when you look at it from the back. the cubes look really precariously glued together. it scares me a bit.
clock #2 – cyclone
i took some rings…(by ‘some’ i actually mean >$30 of them)
and connect them…lots and lots of them…while i was doing this and moaning away, jessica told me the story of the LOTR chainmail guys. bless their now-nonexistent fingerprints. and their dedication. and their wonderful chainmail which is way nicer than this chain of rings.
and then start hanging it with fishing wire. the fishing wire was…generously donated by baolin. it’s really amazing how much stuff seniors have left to get rid of after coursework. and the first time i stringed it up, it looked really horrible. so i had to re-do it. here’s the second take.
bottom view.
side view. it’s not much really. because it’s supposed to be viewed from the bottom as in the previous picture. and i really need a photo of it up in the gallery with the light on. the shadows are just. sublime.
clock #3 – tsunami
i broke some glass and cleaned the shards. the glass powder is annoyingly dangerous. and it gets everywhere, even in the whorls of my fingers. and it hurts. thankfully i wasn’t stupid enough to get cut.
and i stuck some tiny shards on the hands. this was uber fun.
i finally understood what ‘trials and tribulations’ meant after this one. the glass didn’t stick well and kept falling apart. and this is the first ‘finished’ one, which means it’s actually after 5-6 sessions of re-gluing till everything holds.
but alas, it fell apart.
and so, after it TOTALLY FELL APART i stuck it back in this form.
top view. oh by the way, i spray-painted the thing white.
closeup. and this is what i submitted.
but alas, it was not meant to be. it keeps falling apart. and i keep having to glue it back. even on the exhibition opening night i was on standby with a tube on superglue in my pocket (i kid you not). so a warning: if what you see at the gallery differs slightly, you now know why.
glass is troublesome. i should have used perspex. but there’s nothing like seeing people’s expressions when you tell them that it is real glass. and they go into perpetual shock and wonder why your fingers are still intact. whoever said glass was dangerous and kept it away from their kids is stupid. they just don’t trust that their kids have enough intelligence and common sense to handle it properly.
—-
and so these are my 3 finals. i scored kinda high because i experimented with a lot of media.
so that’s that. no more ilp! coursework: here i come!
(actually, i’m not all that enthusiastic…)
ILP 2010 – prep – natural disasters November 6, 2010
Posted by dilutedwater in artworks-traditional, coursework, inspirations, prep, rants.Tags: cloud, dinosaur, fire, ink, painting, pen, pencil, volcano, water, watercolour, wind
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this will be a long and arduous journey through the macabre recesses of my mind post.
the prep pieces are not in any order. not even chronological. or thematic. i had actually arranged them nicely but after grading they came back messed up /: so anyway, here’s all the prep…(be awed by my skills yeah)
volcano on the left; illustration of thunderclouds on right. please tilt head for better view.
this is supposed to be an uprooted tree, not a pile of rocks as commonly believed. my first major nice piece in coloured pencils! i used mainly blues and browns. i don’t know why i like the combination of blue/brown.
forest fire. yes i know the tree trunks are purple. but they aren’t that charred as to be black yet. and i hate drawing fire. i can’ tell if i’m right or wrong since they’re all just patches of colours. and squiggles.
this, my dear readers, IS NOT A PILE OF ROCKS. it is a thundercloud laced with lightning (except the lightning isn’t very clear when it’s rendered in pencil). and it took me ages to do. because the forms are so organic and insanely hard to get exactly accurately correct.
poor little t-rex. this is where this was inspired from. fun stuff.
trees swaying violently in the wind. this was actually quite fun to draw! and the nice smoky background was done with weirong’s charcoal powder that was all over the tables.
i think this is a cyclone or tornado or something wind-related. see the ribbons of currents? yeah…
whirlpool. with pen. i don’t think it looks like one though…anyway. this was one of the last-minute prep done the night before. to make sure i had 32 pieces of A4 worth of prep. so this is kind of scribbled and substandard…but the effect turned out quite interestingly.
now this is definitely a cyclone or tornado. done with copic markers in 4 different colours. i guess this this is quite okay for a first attempt with copic? i mean, you can tell it’s a swirly thing right?
landslide! finally something that looks like rocks that’s supposed to be rocks! (you’ll understand my frustration in a little while, when the snow prep studies come along.)
landslides again. the one on the left is actually rice terraces. the one on the right is those sort of scientific labeled diagrams.
now here’s the avalanche! a lot of people said it doesn’t look like snow but rather, like rocks. i mean, okay so what if i can’t really draw soft fluffy things. it’s no reason to insult my nice snowscape! heh i love the school’s box of 72 colours.
landslide watercolour. last-minute prep again. random scribbled-in unfinished foliage and suggested town buildings. the brown thing is the landslide by the way.
ice cube and stalactite. do a headstand to see it properly please. i know this isn’t really a natural disaster but…i was looking at transparent things and how it could be recreated, partially because i initially wanted to do an avalanche (which later was scrapped in favour of the landslide), and also because of the wave clock.
this was copied out of a marvel comic book i think. i think i was in love with one of the art styles. this is actually some really old (last december) piece that i realised could be used as prep. hang on let me gush about the marvel style a bit more. the colouring was so exquisite! and the linework! and it looked so real and yet retained the comic-like quality! okay moving on.
this is a nice big turbulent wave. done with ballpoint pen. a lot of people (including mr lo, yes i asked him randomly) said it looked like a mountain. but IT’S A WAVE. and i actually liked how it turned out, even though this was one of the pieces that was supposed to look soft but ended up looking like -ahem- rocks. which led me to think that anything i draw turns out looking like rocks.
now this is a frozen tsunami. go google if curious. after many many many failures are drawing soft flowy things, this was a relative success.
this isn’t exactly a natural disaster either. it’s like a splashing droplet. i love high contrast. i love monochrome. but then again, i love colours too. oh and clean lines too.
geyser. last-minute prep. if you notice, (most if not all) of my last-minute prep are half-completed…
nice huge crashing wave in pastel. this was quite surprising for me, because i realised that pastels are not my worst nightmare and enemy. as a rule of thumb, i don’t do soft flowy objects or medium very well. objects like water, clouds, etc. and medium like pastel, charcoal, smudgy stuff, etc. so this was quite the personal achievement! someone give me a treat please (:
glass wave. was exploring the concept of a transparent wave. this was a last-minute prep too. the base is so botched because i lost patience…
—-
THERE! i have finally finished putting up all the observatory drawings. next should be the designs. and photos of the execution of the final. but my fingers are tired from typing captions. i mean, this post alone has nearly a thousand words! imagine that! and from just captions. plus today is sort of a post spam day…surge of productivity or reluctance to do other things (like cleaning my room)?
i think my skill with coloured pencils and pastels have improved. as well as pen. and i think practically everything except paint. for some strange reason, i’ve been avoiding painting. could be because i feel strange whenever i paint, as if i’m imparting a fragment of my soul with each brushstroke. and i’m afraid of what people can read through that. my innermost thoughts and feelings which i may or may not even be aware of will be revealed. but wouldn’t other works also have this clairvoyant effect? actually no, because i think painting is the only thing which requires full concentration. thus painting is sort of a connection with my inner self. and i fear the day when i do enough paintings that i have no soul left in me. what will i be then?
okay that was probably emo-ness. but it’s true. which is why i’ve been avoiding painting, because i don’t trust the people i’m surrounded by now. i don’t trust them enough to show them a bit of my soul. am i making jc life sound really bad? it isn’t that bad really. just that i’ve met with some really bad setbacks this year which have forced me to take a more macabre view on things. which means i’ve gone from cynical to uber cynical? haha. i still remember in june during faccomm camp in malaysia, mr teo said to me “you’re too young to be so cynical”. and i think his words really affected me and made me reconsider my personal values (please don’t remind me of magritte), which i think is what led to the hour-long crying-and-emoing session in july. which until now i’m still really thankful for because he missed half an hour of lesson just to make sure i was okay. and i think he would have missed more except that i insisted on leaving and attending math lecture. and he sat there for the whole time and consoled the unstable me, and i think not really caring what his colleagues around thought about the teary female student confiding in a male teacher…
i shouldn’t be saying these things on a public platform right?
right.
(oh phish now i have to go and tick the ‘rants’ category because i went and typed stuff. and i’m too lazy to tag everything so i shall put generic tags.)
ILP 2010 – prep – clocks November 6, 2010
Posted by dilutedwater in coursework, inspirations, prep.Tags: clock, ink, pencil
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i think i’ll split my ilp post into parts. or else i’ll never finish it.
watch and clock in oriental blue and pencil.
more timepieces. top one in pen.
cuckoo clock in blue ballpoint and black ink. some hands in ink.
copied from dali’s persistence of memory. i love how he can make even something as mechanical as clocks seem so wondrously ethereal.
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i started out this ilp drawing (what else?) clocks! plain observatory sketches. i think it was because i didn’t know how to get started so i just drew clocks. and natural disasters. and sort of procrastinated doing the actual thing.
for some strange reason, ever since sec 3 i’ve been avoiding paint. i have no idea why. but initially i had wanted to paint the scenes of natural disasters on a flat surface and use it as a clock face. then my mentor decided to make me represent the natural disasters through actual materials, and not depiction. but i digress; this post is on clocks.
another initial idea i had was to make the clocks vary in…time period, so to say. so one would be…a sundail and another a minimalist modernist clock? something like that. but in the end i couldn’t figure out how that would work since natural disasters have been around for ages. and no one came before the other (so to say).
food…for thought September 28, 2009
Posted by dilutedwater in artworks-digital, coursework, video, writings.Tags: manifesto, poem
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my coursework final!
title: food…for thought
medium: claymation (stopmotion animation)
time: 4:42
do you know what sorts of microbes breed in fast food? there may be totally new strains, cultured and mutated through the tons of preservatives and msg! as well as the potential to make you unhealthy, they may cause food poisoning too! so watch what you eat.
then there’s the case of food for thought. is it possible to poison your thoughts? i think so. though unhealthy obsessions and unwholesome education, one’s only sane recluse (the mind) can be poisoned.
this is true for the above pig, who cares not for its physical and mental health. let’s all mourn for its sudden departure from the fictional world, due to a heart attack from induced shock.
through simple materials such as paper and clay, a story comes alive. the malleable materials are reminiscent of our own lives, as we have control over whatever we do. so make the right choices. don’t get poisoned.
let everyone watch it (: no matter what age you are, i believe you will be able to learn something, whether it’s that my animation skills are extremely poor, or that i have nothing better to do for coursework, or the actual message i’m trying to bring across. i believe that animation has the power to transcend time, and art, too has the ability to outlast it’s maker.
coursework, claymation,
done over a long time,
tells a story,
that is uniquely mine.
fast food, video games,
capturing people’s lives,
leads me to think:
how hard the artist strives
alone, futilely,
working without an end,
to bring you this
artwork to comprehend.
watching, listening,
realising my intent,
through this story –
a story that transcends.
—-
i never want to do animation again. it’s so under-appreciated. and people think it’s easy to do when it’s not. appreciate the 25fps please! i had many troubles doing this video. from the light overheating repeatedly to having to re-do certain scenes. but i think it’s a really enriching experience. if i had to do it again, i wouldn’t. i would rather do something else for coursework.
the poem is by me. as of yet untitled. it’s in the form 5, 6, 4, 6. i think i like it (: it could actually be my manifesto!
